1980s Homelessness in LA, Who's to Blame
Presenter: Kelly Lopez
Presenter Status: Undergraduate student
Academic Year: 20-21
Semester: Fall
Faculty Mentor: Michaela Grobbel
Department: Modern Languages & Literatures
Funding Source/Sponsor: SYRCE Symposium
Screenshot URL: https://drive.google.com/uc?id=1KkOSh2wFSH1hs16N2c_c548Vi4B0O_7T
Abstract:
Growing up in LA, there has not been a day where I do not see someone sleeping out on the streets. I watch as they hold up signs, set up their tents or their sleeping bag in the crevices of buildings, ask for food and money, pushcarts full of blankets, walk barefoot and cold. I could even say it is normal and that is where the problem lies. Homelessness has been normalized when it shouldn’t be, and instead of finding ways to help, people see it as a problem that they don’t want to deal with. What I want to express with my project is that homeless people are not to blame but the situations they are put in because our government has made it so that they end up on the streets. Homelessness has been around for a long time, and around the 1960s through 1970’s it received a lot of attention due to Skid Row where the population was majority Vietnam vets and manifested into an overpopulation of homeless people. Moving onto the 1980s, there was a rise in Los Angeles County. In a population of about 7.5-8.2 million people, 35,000 people were homeless. With factors such as the economy, drug abuse, demolition of low-income housing units, only low-income jobs being offered, cut in welfare rolls, etc. adding up throughout the 1980s, homelessness grew. For example, a plan of “deinstitualization” to empty asylums and mental health institutions and house them in federally funded community mental health communities. At the same time, cuts are being made to these exact resources and spaces are limited. Therefore resulting in these people experiencing homelessness. Along with my findings, it has been clear that people have made judgments towards homelessness and those suffering from it, that are unfair. They don’t seem to take into account how our government has failed them but how they failed themselves. I don’t believe that every single homeless person did not have a choice to prevent homelessness, I understand that everyone’s story is different. I will advocate that for the majority of cases, there are constant factors that our government has put into place so that people fall to homelessness easily. My project is a presentation of tents and someone sleeping on the floor with a sign “Homeless and Hungry.” If you look closely, I drew the tents and man with words. These words are factors as to why people suffer from homelessness. The majority pertaining to the factors that caused homelessness in 1980 but along with statistically proved reasons as to what affects people to lose their job, receive low-income, etc. that restrict them from being able to afford a home. I drew the man with words that express how they are feeling, such as “cold, hungry” etc. because their feelings are almost never taken into account. The reason I drew the picture with words is to emphasize my perspective that not every homeless person uses their money for drugs or alcohol, nor chooses to be “lazy”, along with all the other stereotypes. It is so that people look closer, and examine all possible situations that got them there, and to realize that it is a problem within our government.
Annotated Bibliography
Reuter, K. (n.d.). Bodies Made Public: The Homeless Body in 1980s Los Angeles. Retrieved November 30, 2020, from https://journals.psu.edu/ne/article/download/60345/60307
In this article, Reuter provides information on all aspects concerning homelessness. She touches upon why homelessness exists and the factors that continue to cause homelessness. It also includes how society thinks of homeless people now. Due to their unfair judgment, people have done more to get rid of homeless people than help them.
Factors contributing to Homelessness. (2012, June 12). Retrieved November 30, 2020, from https://homelessresourcenetwork.org/?page_id=1086
This website provided statistics and quick factors as to why people are homeless. Although these factors and statistics were not directed for LA it still provided reasonable information as to why people lose their homes. Along with the factors, there were explanations to go into depth about each reason.
What Led to the Rise of Homelessness. (2017, April 06). Retrieved November 30, 2020, from https://www.kcet.org/shows/socal-connected/the-rise-of-homelessness-in-the-1980s
Through this informative website, historical events were mentioned and explained that caused homelessness to rise in the 1980s in LA. It included problems within our economy, housing, welfare, politics, personal vulnerabilities, drug abuse, and a section pertaining to homelessness being predicted due to the changes that were occurring. Homelessness was bound to occur with the way our government was treating their only resources. As the article explains, getting rid of low-income housing units, only providing minimum wage jobs, rise in rent, emptying asylums and mentally disabled individuals from their retirement homes, reducing the money that would go towards programs that helped the poor, the rise of stricter sentencing, etc.